A lot can happen in 36 hours, did you know that? Good or bad, that is a lot of time for things to happen. Thursday morning to Friday afternoon was about the longest 36 hours of my life.

Thursday morning Braeden came to school with me to get my classroom together in the morning. I had to take him to our lower grade school in order to get his eyes retested since he failed the vision test in his left eye during preschool screening. We went to see my friend who is the nursing assistant and who needed to rescreen him. It was neat how they did the screening. I hadn't seen the first one, so was glad to see how it works. In his hands, Braeden held a card with four large symbols on it. 10 feet away was a light up board that my friend could push a button for and light up one of the symbols on his card. He was then to point to the same symbol on his card. First they did it using both eyes, he did all four just fine. Then they tried just the right eye. Same thing, did it perfectly. Then the left. Nope. He could not do it at all! So, needless to say she wrote out a referral for him to have his eyes professionally examined. Knowing he has medicaid, I knew I did not just want to go somewhere because they took Medicaid. I have not had the best experience with these kind of people, unfortunately. They mean well I believe, but often are hurried, and not as thorough as others. I didn't want his eyes left to chance. So I talked to people and found the name of the "best" in our area. I called them and the first question was, "What kind of insurance does he have?" I said Medicaid, but that if they didn't accept that I was willing to pay for it myself. She told me the name of another place that took Medicaid and that I should call them. I guess I thought if they were so good and were referring me to a place that took Medicaid instead of just having me pay, then maybe this other place was good too. I made an appt, then called our school nurse to ask her about them. She does not like them at all. She said they are not thorough and doesn't feel they do the best job. That's what I figured on Medicaid places. BUT, she said that if his doctor gave the other place a script for him to have his eyes checked there, they WOULD take Medicaid. Interesting. She asked who his doctor was, he has a wonderful one we also know from church, and said to call and see if he would write a script. So, I called and the nurse said she would talk to him about it and see what he said. Next morning, I received a call that the script had already been faxed to their office and I only needed to call back and schedule an appt. Yay, the "best" eye doctor is where my Braeden will go, and they will take his Medicaid.

Well, in amongst these issues, other things were happening as well. Right after Braeden failed his vision test and I was starting to process this, I was confronted with some other things going on that took me off guard. Basically something that I thought would be a team decision was now taken out of that context and I felt cornered and pushed to make the decision they were telling me to make. It's involved and I won't go into more details, but a bunch of emails followed and it was not a nice situation.

After school/work I went to pick up the kids. On the couple blocks there, I noticed I had a voice mail on my cell. I hadn't taken my phone into work today. It was from our day care provider and I was surprised she hadn't called me at work. She was obviously crying, but said nothing was wrong with the kids, just that she needed to talk to me. It had been left around 9:30 am. When I got there I asked what was wrong and explained I just got her message. Our day care provider has been in process of being licensed since July. In late August when we started there it was supposed to be almost done. It wasn't yet, but the licensing person knew she was starting to take some kids and just had us write letters stating that we were sending our kids there, what the cost was, and what the cost would be once she was licensed. No problem. Well she still isn't licensed. The licensing person was out for a few months with an illness or surgery or something and was basically just dragging her feet it seemed. So, finally today she was supposed to come and see the house and turn in the last part for her license to be complete. When she got there she seemed outraged that she was already watching kids and told her she can't do that. My friend reminded her that she knew and ok'd it, but she denied anything of the sort. The DCFS person told her that she had to stop watching kids and that if she was found in violation, and they would be checking, that she would be fined $10,000 a DAY for this violation. She was then told that someone had called in and complained that she was running a day care without a license and that her license would be put on hold until this investigation was complete. They have 30 days to investigate and then she still has to finish being licensed, if they'll even let her now. So, for me, this means as of that minute, I have no more day care. She said that the person who had watched the kids while she had the baby had said for me to call her and that she could watch them until I got them somewhere else. So, now I'm forced into getting doctor immunization records for all the kids, two different doctors, finding day care so late in the school year, etc. I called the place where my kids had been before, they could take Braeden and Olivia, but no room for Little One. Plus they didn't know if their bus schedule could accomodate picking up Olivia because they didn't currently pick up kids there. And, Braeden's fee would now be costing me $57 per week more than what I'm paying now. So, after many calls and running around, etc., here's where we're at. Braeden and Little One will be going to the same day care. That way I'll have one drop off point in the morning. The registration fee for them is $75 and Braeden's day care is $15 per week more than now. Olivia will go back to the other day care, but they can't bus her so I'm still trying to figure out how to get her there. I'm hoping their "old" day care person could drive her and just keep the rest of the money I already paid for this month for Braeden, $120, plus pay her around $100 more. They only have one car right now, so they're not sure. Otherwise I'm going to call her school first thing Monday and see if they know of a parent who picks their child up at the same time and would be willing to give her a ride, for payment. Olivia's registration fee is $115, but the agency is going to try to help with that. I am paying out of pocket for this person to watch the kids Friday, Monday, and maybe Tuesday until they can start at their new places, so that will be $100-150. All together this is costing me about $485-$535. That's if the agency pays Olivia's fee. This sucks! All for 6 more weeks of school! Too bad my other friend J doesn't live closer!!! ( :0) )

Well, if that couldn't have been enough of a day, and I still had Friday where I needed to run around with day care forms and foster payment day care forms and doctor forms, I felt kind of yucky at dinner Thursday. I couldn't eat and attributed it to all that was going on, stress I guess. But no, at midnight I was up and spent the rest of the night in the bathroom or laying in bed feeling like I was dying. Must have gotten what Braeden had, but about a million times worse. I had to call in sick. Another $170 I won't have. I stayed home while the person watching the kids still came to watch them. I went from feeling ok to horrible stomach pains, getting sick finally, etc. Finally around 1:30 I began to feel better. I hoped I was on the mend and not going to feel bad again soon. I had eaten only half a cracker all day. That night I was able to eat a little applesauce and still felt ok. I got a great night sleep and seem fine now. I ate some applesauce and a piece of toast this morning and still feel good. I even got a shower.

So, that's my 36 hours. Some of which of course is still going on. I wait anxiously to see if someone will be able to drive Olivia. I couldn't find any other day cars who bus who had openings for her. Otherwise I thought I could ask my principal if she could come in the building (she gets dropped off by the bus at my school) and stay with me the hour and 15 min until my lunch when I could take her. I think he wouldn't care, but who knows. I don't want to ask until it's my last resort, although Olivia would love it! :) I'm hoping I am able to get all the forms I need back on Monday so that they can start on Tuesday. I hope that Braeden is ok with the transition. Olivia will be fine since she remembers that day care and loved it there. Little One will be fine. It's Braeden I'm unsure about. We'll see. Hope you had a better week. :)